State of Decay: Survival of the Fittest
by TheBusStopGuy
Summary: A story about some survivors in a zombie apocalypse, friendships will be established, rivalries will be formed, and betrayals will take place, all the while there are zombies waiting to be slaughtered. I know right? Dramatic. Rated M for violence and mature language.
1. Chapter 1: Medicine

Right I'm going to try to keep this short,

First off, I wanted to thank Envirosuit for allowing me to base my story off of his, if you haven't checked it out I would suggest you do,

State of Decay: The Survival Handbook

Secondly, I wanted to say, I'm new to this, and if I'm being honest, I don't know if I'll be any good, but it's something I've wanted to try for a while, any feedback criticism (helpful, I hope) is greatly appreciated, now with that in mind, let's get started.

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**Chapter 1: Medicine**

The man snuck through the back door into the vet's, trying not to attract any attention as he did so, ''I'm here,'' the man said into the radio ''Okay good, try to look for Tylenol or Morphine, something to help ease Ed's pain, at least until we can find Doc Hanson.'' she said, sounding rather sombre, ''otherwise find anything useful, and please, try not to get yourself killed.'' ''I'll do my best Lily.''

He put the radio back in his jacket pocket and began looking around for the two items Lily had mentioned, he went into the back room and instantly jumped back, ''Jeez, what is that smell?'' he looked back in and saw four Zeds lain across the room, each with a bullet hole in their heads, he saw some bullet casings scattered across the floor, four in total, same amount as the carcasses that were stinking up the room, he hurried through the containers to find anything useful, trying to get out of the room and away from that horrible smell, he found some medicines, not Tylenol or Morphine but still useful, he put them into his rucksack and went into the opposite room, he pulled out his knife, just in case. ''Nothing,'' he thought to himself, ''Not yet anyway.'' He began looking through all the drawers, quickly, as he wanted to get back as quick as possible, as he was looking through the drawers he accidentally pulled one out too quickly, and it fell to the ground, making a large bang, ''Shit!'' he exclaimed, knowing that this would have attracted some of the Zeds that were lurking outside, luckily, he saw a cabinet with supplies in it, he went to open it, bit it was locked, he grabbed the axe from his back and hit the panel with the bottom end of the axe, smashing it instantly, he grabbed a cloth from the work top and used it to grab the medicine, not wanting to get cut, he quickly put everything into his sack, and tried to get into the other room, but it wouldn't open ''Maybe it's barricaded'' he thought, as he turned around, a Zed came running straight at him, he quickly dodged its attempt to grab him , he shoved the Zed up against the wall and planted his knife firmly in its head, killing it, just as he dealt with the first one, another came towards him, this one was slower, so he could deal with it a lot easier, he planted a firm kick on the Zed's chest, making it fall backward, he took his axe out and forced it down onto the Zed's head, the creature's head splattered across the room.

''Gross.'' he said, and stepped over the now properly lifeless body, and hurried out the door. He ran to his car, after making sure there was no more surprises waiting for him. and quickly sped of down the road, to the church.

He parked his car next to Alan Gunderson's truck, just as Alan said ''Watch the paint on that truck, boy, it's probably worth more than you've made in your whole life.'' the man rolled his eyes, as he took the keys out of the car, and walked up to the gate, just as Alan got down from the watchtower to unlock the gate, ''You get what Lily asked for?'' Alan asked, ''I did my best.'' he replied. ''Good, that's all we can ask for.'' Alan got back up on the watchtower and picked up his rifle, as he resumed his guard duties. The man walked up to the church door, seeing the pastor tend to Ed as he did. ''He knocked on the door and Sam Hoffman opened the door, ''Oh hey man, you're back,'' sounding particularly annoyed, she walked straight back into the kitchen. ''Hey Sam...'' the man said, wondering why Sam was so irritated, ''What's up with her?'' the man said, pointing into the kitchen. ''I think she's just on edge, with everything that's happened, you can't really blame her.'' Lily answered as she got up, ''Yeah, I know...'' the man replied. ''So what'cha got?'' Lily asked. ''As much as I could find,'' the man responded, he laid the rucksack on the table, and Lily sorted through everything, ''Codeine, Ibuprofen, Morphine, Tylenol,'' the man caught a glimpse of Maya sleeping in the room across, he had felt particularly fond of her as they were travelling through the woods, trying to find the church, the man and his friend Ed had managed to contact Lily through a radio they found in a cabin, which was where they had found Maya, and where Ed was bitten. Without Lily, they never would had gotten to the church, they all owed there lives to Lily, the man especially as Lily's group had taken care of Ed, using all of of their medicine to help keep Ed's infection at bay, the man and Maya had spent most of their time looking for Doc Hanson, whom no-one had heard from in a few weeks, Lily had been asking around the community on the radio if anyone had saw him, but they had no luck. ''Marcus, Marcus?!'' ''Hmm, yeah?'' '''You were drooling over Maya again, for goodness' sake just tell her you like her. I'm sure she likes you too'' ''You think so?'' Marcus smiled. ''Yeah I'm sure she spends half her days drooling over you as well'' she said, laughing at him. ''Shut up,'' he retorted. ''Seriously though, you did great here, we've got more than we had before and more than we'll need to help Ed, hopefully with this much medicine, we could get rid of the infection, but we still need Doc Hanson to make sure he's stable'' ''Oh, thank God,'' Marcus said ''But in the meantime, we had better keep looking for him.'' ''Thanks Lily, and don't worry we're still gonna keep looking for your brother.'' ''Yeah, thanks...'' Lily said, sounding slightly worried'' She heard Marcus shut the bedroom door.

''Maya, Maya.'' Marcus whispered, shrugging her shoulder. ''Yeah, what?'' she yawned, slowly sitting up. ''I think we need to tell Lily about her dad.''

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Right, so that's my first chapter done, a bit short, but I think it turned out okay, however that's for you guys to decide. So, please leave a review saying what you think, and if I should keep going with this story. My next chapter will be about an OC, who I've already got the base for, I've got the next two chapters planned out, in total the story is split into three groups; the canon group, my OC (and his eventual group), and the military group, for anyone who reads Envirosuit's story, you can see the obvious inspiration, these three groups will, from time to time, intersect with each other and some rivalries or partnerships may develop, some other groups and survivors will be mentioned, but I'm not planning on focusing on them, but nothing is solid. So until the the next chapter, goodbye!


	2. Chapter 2: Cannibals

Chapter 2: Cannibals

OK, before I get started, I wanted to thank both Envirosuit and mk14ebr for taking time to write reviews for my first chapter, and I will do my best to include their suggestions into my stories.

Also, I wanted to set the times up as of right now, because I may include references from other chapters that wouldn't make sense if I didn't, The Canon group is. for the most part, the centre group of the story for now, and Ryan's story takes place 2 days before theirs and the military chapters take place roughly around the same time as the canon group's. I'm going to start putting in times and dates just to help people with the story, so... let's begin.

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June 3rd 2013, 11:02 pm

Ryan Carter was walking down a street, machete in hand, attempting to find an unlocked building to rest in for the night. He had been sent to find food by his group, they had survived up at the ranger station for about a week, the group consisted mostly of campers who had managed to escape from the cannibalistic psychopaths who had been attacking campers and eating them, a few of the survivors believed that these things were the undead, others believed they were the result of some sort of plague, others believed this was the Apocalypse, an act of God.

Ryan had spent the past day travelling down to Marshall City, along the way he had drove past some more of the cannibals that he had encountered at the camp sites. He had met a lot more in Marshall, but they were slow, unless angered, which made them easy to avoid, or if necessary, kill, he wasn't too happy about this, but he knew it had to be done.

So far, he hadn't found a building that was safe enough to sleep in, he kept walking down the road, until he had come across a horde of the cannibals, hesitating, he fled down the alleyway, as he did he found a ladder leading up to the top of a building, he climbed up to the top, and found a passageway leading into the building, he crept down, holding his machete, wary of any potential dangers inside. To his surprise no-one was there, so he locked the door he came in, he didn't know if any of those things could climb ladders, but he didn't want to risk it. The front door had a busted lock, so he looked around for anything to barricade it with, he found bookcase, with books scattered across the floor, obviously the ones from the bookcase, but he didn't know why they had been knocked off, and didn't think into it much, he dragged the bookcase across to cover the door, and checking around once again, went to the wall opposite the front door, sat his gear down. slid down against the wall, and quickly drifted off to sleep.

June 4th, 10:27am

Ryan stretched his arms as he woke up, yawning. He lifted his machete and duffel bag, both of which were resting against the wall next to him. He put his bag around him, and sheathed his machete against his thigh. He walked across to the window and noticed only two cannibals lurking around, easy enough to sneak by, or kill.

He unlocked the door he came in and walked up to the top of the building, he saw three cannibals roaming around, he doubted he could take three on, as the noise he would make would most likely attract the cannibals he saw at the other side of the building. He looked around for another escape route, there was a building near by he could probably jump on to.

''Fuck it.'' he said, preparing himself for the jump. ''Don't look down,'' he squirmed ''Don't look down'' He broke into a sprint and leaped across ''Oh shit!'' he cried, and landed on the other side, tumbling across the ground. He got up and dusting himself off, taking a second to regain his bearings. He looked down at the ground, he didn't see any cannibals. So he climbed down the fire escape, and pulled out his machete, just in case.

He walked around the building, into an alleyway, hoping to avoid any potential dangers, just then, a cannibal leapt out at him, reacting instinctively, he put his forearm against the creatures neck, preventing it from biting him, he pushed the cannibal to the wall adjacent, and sliced at its head, causing half of its head to fall to the ground, with the rest of it following shortly after.

''Damn it, I shouldn't have come alone!'' He knew how unlikely it was that he could survive in a city full of these _things. _But he didn't have to, all he needed to do was find some food for his group, and then he could get the hell out of this God-forsaken city.

He remembered the map his friend Carl had gave him, he searched around for it in his jacket. No luck.

He took his duffel bag off his back and put in on the ground, unzipping it as he did so.

He looked around, water, energy bar, pain killers, a photo of his parents. Ryan grimaced at the site of this photo, his parents had died among the chaos up at the camp site. The photo he was now holding in his hand was took before they left for the trip, and it was now the only memory he had of them.

He put the photo back and put his hand in a smaller compartment in the bag, he pulled out the map, but there was something else, a gun.

Ryan pulled out the gun and looked at it, he was puzzled, as he was sure he didn't put it there, his first suspicion was Carl, but then he remembered this bag was his dad's, so his dad may have also put the gun there. He decided to look into it further once he got back to camp. He looked through at the slots and saw there were six bullets in the gun.

He looked up and saw two cannibals advancing towards him, this gave him a chance to test out his gun. He aimed the gun at the first one's head, and fired.

The gun pushed upwards, and the shot hit the one behind instead. ''At least it wasn't a waste.'' he smirked. He knew this time he knew to expect the kickback, and, being able to anticipate it, he hit the cannibal square in the head. ''Nice!'' he laughed. He looked around for any more cannibals, and not seeing any, he walked out into the street, and saw a horde of the cannibals heading straight for him.

''Oh Jesus!'' he cried, dropping the revolver and sprinting off in the opposite direction. He looked around for a car, and saw a pick-up truck across the road, he went up to it and smashed the window, the alarm went off.

''Oh, come on!'' he shouted, knowing this would attract every cannibal in the city. Luckily he knew how to hot-wire cars thanks to misadventures in his teen years.

''Come on, damn it!'' he screamed, trying his best not to get eaten alive.

Suddenly, the car came to life, 'Yes!'' he roared, and speeding off down the road, gave the finger to some off the advancing cannibals.

June 4th, 5:68pm

Ryan's stomach grumbled, he had gotten used to this by now so it didn't bother him that much, and then he realised that he had forgotten to get food for the group. He knew that if he explained to the group what happened they would understand, or at the very least, send him down with someone else.

He heard a gunshot echo and instinctively ducked, but for some reason swerved around and hit a tree.

For the most part, he was unharmed, his vision was dazed but he recovered quickly enough.

He heard a voice nearby shouting, presumably to the rest of his yet-to-be-seen group, ''Hey boys, I think we got a live one!'' followed by raucous laughter.

Ryan's first instinct was that they were cannibals, but not like the ones he was 'used' to, the kind he had always feared coming across.

This fear was confirmed when one of them shouted, ''I call dibs on one of the legs!''

Ryan's eyes widened, beginning to panic, he didn't know how close they were, as he had still ducked down. He knew roughly where they were coming from, and so tried to sneak out the door opposite, only to be met with a kick to the stomach.

''Did you think you could get away?'' the man smirked. He was soon joined by two other men, both with hunting rifles, the presumed leader, the one who kicked him, was holding a revolver, aimed directly at Ryan's head.

Still buckled with pain, Ryan tried to get on his knees, only to be punched square across the jaw by the ringleader. The other men began laughing at Ryan, before the leader shouted ''Shut up!'' followed by an almost complete silence, besides the faint rustling from the trees.

There was roughly a minute of silence, presumably the other two men were waiting for their leader to say something

''We're going back to camp, Jerry, take him with you.'' ''With pleasure.'' the follower grinned, he took his rifle and hit Ryan across the face, knocking him out.

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I didn't really want to introduce any antagonists this early on in the story, but after watching the final episode of The Walking Dead, the Marauders gave me an idea for some, sort-of cliché characters, but I thought they might be quite cool to introduce. There are only three of them and they'll probably only be in it for a few chapters, maybe even less, but they are connected to some characters in the game, any ideas?

The next chapter is about the military, however, there are only three left, and I think I might merge them with another group I'm planning on introducing, but I've already given too much away, so until next time, goodbye!


	3. Chapter 3: Fallen Beliefs

Author's Note

So I've been working on this for a while now, but I couldn't decide whether to use OC's or the soldiers from the original story, I think I must have changed my mind at least 5 times.

I've also been toying with a Mass Effect story that I'm thinking about releasing soon, it's probably going to be set before and during the events of Mass Effect 1, it may go on to the other two, but I'm not sure yet. It'll be about a mercenary (obviously OC) who is taking contracts that will reference the Mass Effect plot-line.

But enough about that, for now, let's continue with our adventures in State of Decay.

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Chapter 3: Fallen Beliefs

June 5th 2013, 7:09 pm

''Come on, come on!'' Erik Tan was shouting to his comrades as he provided covering fire to the oncoming infected, PFC Winters was the first up, the second was Corporal Woodrow. ''Woodrow, use that damn launcher of yours and fire on those infected!" The corporal aimed at the oncoming horde and fired a grenade straight into the cluster of undead.

The explosion deafened the soldiers' ears, disorienting them for a few moments, they soon recovered and began checking around the building for any surviving infected.

''Looks like that's it." sighed the sergeant ''Thank fuck!" replied the private. ''Sir, what are we going to do about all of this?" "What the hell do you mean, all of this?!'' "It's just, the entire base has been destroyed, everyone in it is dead or infected, we don't know where Captain Montressor and her unit got off to, and we don't have any food or water to survive this fucking Apocalypse!'' ''Hey! Calm down, we'll get through this!'' ''How, what makes us so special, that the others didn't?!'' ''We survived when others didn't, we made it out when everyone else died, so shut the hell up and calm the FUCK down!''

''OK, sorry sir, it's just-" "I know, Private, but we'll get through this, somehow...''

The corporal cut in as he shouted ''Sir look, over there!'' The trio saw a huge horde heading straight towards them, at least twice as big as the horde they had just escaped. "Oh fuck me!'' Tan groaned. The private began panicking and paced around the roof.

"What do we do, Sarge?'' asked the corporal, still calm. ''OK, OK, first we should check our ammo, how much do we have left,'' Tan checked his magazine, it was half full, he remembered the three extra he had picked up back at the base. ''I have 5 magazines for my rifle and one grenade left for my launcher.'' ''Good,'' the sergeant replied, "Private, PRIVATE?!" ''Ye-yeah, what?'' "How much ammunition do you have left?!'' ''Uh, four magazines plus the extra in my rifle, and a full mag in my pistol.''

Tan noticed he could tell right away, without checking, which showed the rookie did have some qualities after all.

''OK, set up defensive positions, Woodrow and I will focus on the bulk that's coming towards the front, Winters you cover the ladder in case any try to get up. Got it?"

''Got it!'' As they began taking up positions, Tan began to doubt his ability to get out of this, but shook the thought away, and remained focused on keeping his team alive.

For an experienced marksman like Tan, hitting a target in the head wasn't a problem, especially when the targets were as slow as the infected. However, he noticed that Winters was having a hard time.

''Winters!'' he shouted, ''Y-yeah?!'' ''Look down the sights, line up your shot, and _then_ fire.'' ''Thanks, sir!''

Tan noticed that Winters was now a lot more accurate, giving the veteran some ease.

The herd was slowly trimming down, the only problem the soldiers had was ammunition, Tan himself had used at least two mags. Woodrow was on his third, and Winters had resorted to using his pistol, whether it was because he found it easier, or due to a lack of ammo, Tan didn't know.

''Fuck this! Guys, we have to move, we don't have enough ammo to waste on these freaks.'' ''Well, where should we go?'' "We obviously can't use the ladder. The infected would rip us to shreds." Tan looked around, and saw a nearby building that they could easily get to from the higher building they were defending. ''We move over to that building, jump down to the ground, and haul ass until we get away from the infected. Winters, you first, Woodrow you're next, I'll go last. Don't take time to check on me, just run as fast as you can, and we'll regroup at the Tartan Mart we came across when we came into the town. You get that?'' ''Yeah.'' they replied simultaneously.

''OK go!'' the sergeant fired the rest of his mag into the horde and then jumped down onto the building and saw that his team were already sprinting across the road.

He leaped down and looked around to ensure there weren't any infected that could creep up on him and then ran across to the opposite pavement. He saw two oncoming infected that could have easily avoided, but the adrenaline made him bloodthirsty, he ran up to the first and kicked it to the ground, however the other was treated to a combat knife to the skull. After pulling the knife out, Tan walked up to the second and slammed his boot down onto the infected's skull. He looked around and saw no more infected. ''Good.''

Tan had soon after arrived at the Tartan Mart. After looking around for a while he found Woodrow, who was drinking a can of soda. ''Hey sarge.'' he said, ''Want one?'' "Please.'' Tan replied. He sat down on the counter. ''Where's Winters?'' ''Dunno, I kept running for the store, when I got there he wasn't behind me. I looked around for a while, came into an infected on the roof while looking for him. Got a bit too close for comfort. Nothing I couldn't handle though.'' ''Good.'' ''So what do we do about Winters?'' "I say we wait here for the night, if he isn't here for the morning... he's probably dead.''

Woodrow gave the veteran a look he never wanted to see any soldier in his command give him. It was a look of disbelief, one that made him regret his previous words.

Instead of challenging his superior officer, Woodrow just went back to sipping his soda. There was around a minute of awkward silence before Tan got off the counter and said ''I'm going to go up to the roof to look around for Winters.'' Woodrow simply replied ''OK.''

Tan grabbed his rifle and walked out the back door to where he assumed the ladder would be. He began walking up to the ladder and heard an infected moaning behind him. He turned around to find three infected coming towards him. Tan aimed at the closest and pulled the trigger. ''Shit!''

The magazine was empty. Tan hit the infected with the butt of his rifle and it stumbled back. He threw his rifle to the ground and pulled out his knife.

''Come on, you fuckers!'' He went up the first and threw it against the wall, stabbing it in the head. The other two walked up to him and the first lunged at him, the second piled on and caused him to fall over. ''Damn it!'' This was the first time Tan had genuinely feared for his life since all of this began. He struggled to keep the weight of two full adults from collapsing on him, as this would mean certain death.

Luckily, Woodrow came out from the store and dragged the one on top off, shooting it in the head. Tan grabbed a loose brick and smacked the infected on the back of the skull, and then threw it to the side. Woodrow walked up to Tan and grabbed his hand, pulling him up off of the ground.

''Thanks.'' "No problem, you'd do the same for any of us.'' Tan felt his gut sink as he knew that they couldn't look for Winters, as at least one of them had to stay at the Tartan Mart.

"Woodie.'' Woodrow looked at Tan quizzically, as no-one had given him a nick-name before. ''Yeah?'' ''I have an idea. If one of us were to stay here. The other could look around the town for Winters, we could keep in contact if we could find some HT's. Any idea were we could find some?'' ''Yeah, I used to stay here before I joined up. I know for a fact that the corner store on third does kids walkie talkies, good enough, don't you think?'' ''Yeah, yeah, that could work. Let's just hope they're not out of stock, or been looted.''

''OK.'' Tan groaned, while picking up his rifle, ''I'll head out and try to find some. You stay here and keep an eye out for Winters.'' "Sure.'' he said, quickly climbing up the ladder. Tan reloaded his gun, and looked round the corner, half-expecting another infected to ambush him.

A few minutes after leaving the store, Tan walked up a pavement and saw at least six infected roaming around near the houses, a few spotted him walking nearby. Thinking quickly, he climbed in through an open window, almost breaking his neck as he tumbled through it. ''Oh Jesus!" he moaned, rubbing his neck. As he got up, he saw a decayed couple, lying on the bed. The man was holding a gun that was sticking to his hand. Tan pried it loose, but felt bad. Feeling of doubt and sadness began crept into his mind. ''Jeez...'' he walked out of the room and saw the store through the living room window. He chuckled as the store literally read 'Corner Store.'

Tan walked through the door, and went to his knees as he saw an infected at the end of the garden that hadn't caught him yet, he crept up to it and pulled away at its legs, causing it to smack its head against the gate, not taking any chances, he planted a knife in the back of its head. He leapt over the gate, and walked across to the corner store, before hearing a shot whiz past his ear. Tan heard someone shouting at another, but couldn't make it out.

Not taking any chance to find out what they said, he sprinted into the store. Someone shouted ''I don't think Halloween is for another couple'a months yet!'' followed by laughter. Obviously insulting his uniform.

''Shit,'' he thought to himself, ''how the hell am I going to get out of this...''

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So that's that done. Now that I've finished with the introductions, I can get onto making the chapters longer and more detailed, so that's good...

Also, I wanted to ask, does anyone (who reads this) want to keep the date and time thing, because personally, I'm not too keen on it, but I'd gladly keep it if it helps people in any way.

Finally, I wanted to thank everyone who has bothered to read this, yes I realise it's only three chapters, but for anyone who bothers to read even one, it makes this feel worthwhile. I know that the quality is nowhere near as good as some of the amazing stories on this site, but I'll try my best to improve as we go on, so, yeah. Thanks.

I guess that's it. Until next time!


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